The Promo Playbook by Cubic Promote

charles-au
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Welcome to The Promo Playbook, your backstage pass to the world of promotional marketing. Brought to you by Cubic Promote (https://www.cubicpromote.com.au/) Australia’s award-winning supplier of branded merchandise, this podcast is your go-to guide for making marketing and promo products work harder for your business. In each episode, we unpack real campaigns, talk to industry insiders, and share practical strategies to help you boost brand visibility, engage customers, and stand out. From trade shows to onboarding kits, we cover it all — with no fluff, just real insights that convert.

  1. 2D AGO

    AI in Sales: What to Automate vs What to Keep Human

    Virtual selling didn’t just “grow” after 2020, it took over. We share a stat that over 90% of B2B companies have shifted to virtual sales models thanks to better sales process efficiency and modern management software, then we zoom in on the exceptions. South Korea and Japan still lean more heavily toward face-to-face business meetings, which sparks a bigger question: when does digital selling build trust, and when does it quietly drain it?  From there we get hands-on with voice AI agents. We’ve tested an AI that handles inbound telephone calls and it’s shockingly close, but the weird part isn’t the answers, it’s the rhythm. Those tiny buffers, awkward pauses, and moments where the bot jumps in too early reveal the hardest problem in conversational AI: knowing when to speak. We talk about why timing is a human relationship skill, how tricky multi-part questions are, and why even a 0.5 second delay can change the feel of a conversation.  We also map out where AI sales automation makes the most sense right now: faster B2C interactions, and B2B lead qualification instead of full relationship selling. Then we shift to AI marketing productivity, reacting to a story about building video ads, landing pages, and email follow-up sequences in a single week with tools like Claude, ChatGPT, and Copilot. We’re honest about the trade-off too: speed is real, but granular control and “perfectly on brand” details still trip AI up, especially in enterprise compliance environments.  If you’re rethinking your sales strategy, marketing funnel, or lead qualification workflow, this one will give you clearer guardrails for what to automate and what to keep human. Subscribe, share this with a teammate, and leave a review, then tell us: where has AI saved you the most time so far?  Follow Cubic Promote: 🌐 Website: https://www.cubicpromote.com.au 🔗 LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/company/cubic-promote 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cubicpromote/ 👍 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CubicPromote 🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cubic_promote 📌 Pinterest: https://au.pinterest.com/cubicpromote/ ⭐ Google Business: https://share.google/hskqvOCdVzgckNmYJ ✖️ X: https://x.com/cubicpromote

    9 min

  2. APR 1

    If You Can’t Afford a CMO, Listen to This

    The marketing world is quietly reorganising itself around one idea: hire the best people for the job, even if they are not full-time. We talk about fractional leadership and fractional work from the inside, including the weird reality that a fractional CMO can feel like a full employee when they are embedded with the team and owning outcomes day to day. From there, we get practical about building a modern marketing function with specialists. Think SEO, web development, social media, content, and paid media, all working in focused lanes. The upside is expertise on demand. The risk is losing quality control if nobody knows how to judge the work. We share the mindset that fixes that: set clear measures of success, know what “good” looks like, and manage outcomes instead of activity. Then we shift into B2B marketing tactics that you can actually test. LinkedIn ads are a commercial hub, and the holiday period around Christmas and New Year can be a hidden advantage. Even when buyers are not signing straight away, they are still online thinking, planning, and noticing who shows up. With many competitors pulling back, costs can drop and performance can spike. We also explore a counterintuitive paid LinkedIn strategy: start with broader audience targeting so the AI has room to learn, then let optimisation find the real buyer cohort over time. If you want sharper thinking on fractional marketing strategy, LinkedIn advertising, audience targeting, and marketing metrics that matter, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who runs B2B growth, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.  Follow Cubic Promote: 🌐 Website: https://www.cubicpromote.com.au 🔗 LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/company/cubic-promote 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cubicpromote/ 👍 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CubicPromote 🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cubic_promote 📌 Pinterest: https://au.pinterest.com/cubicpromote/ ⭐ Google Business: https://share.google/hskqvOCdVzgckNmYJ ✖️ X: https://x.com/cubicpromote

    12 min

  3. MAR 13

    Growing B2B Business by 690% (The Social Playbook)

    690% growth in 30 days sounds like a typo until you see what changed: we stopped trying to look “professional” on every platform and started trying to be interesting where it counts. I’m Charles from Cubic Promote, and I’m breaking down the social media strategy that helped our Instagram and TikTok viewership and engagement jump fast using short form content that actually fits how people scroll.  We get into the B2B trap that keeps brands invisible: treating every channel the same and posting dry updates that feel like press releases. LinkedIn can reward education and company news, but Instagram Reels and TikTok play by different rules. For transactional B2B businesses like branded merchandise and uniforms, there’s only so much you can “educate” the market about. What you really need is brand recognition built through repeated touchpoints, and humour is one of the cleanest ways to earn that attention without begging for it.  I walk through our practical content system: short office skits from five seconds to three minutes, a simple workflow that combines AI generated base scripts with improvisation, and a deliberate “The Office” style tone that corporate buyers instantly recognise. We also talk cadence, why perfectionists get punished, and the weird truth that the clips you think will be bangers often flop while the “good enough” posts travel. Plus, the unexpected upside: customers calling to say they laughed and a genuine lift in team morale.  If you want more B2B social media growth tactics, TikTok marketing ideas, and a realistic playbook for building demand through brand, subscribe, share this with a founder who plays it safe, and leave a review with the one thing you’ll try next week.  Follow Cubic Promote: 🌐 Website: https://www.cubicpromote.com.au 🔗 LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/company/cubic-promote 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cubicpromote/ 👍 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CubicPromote 🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cubic_promote 📌 Pinterest: https://au.pinterest.com/cubicpromote/ ⭐ Google Business: https://share.google/hskqvOCdVzgckNmYJ ✖️ X: https://x.com/cubicpromote

    5 min

  4. MAR 2

    Building A B2B Moat With Omnipresence And Retention

    Buyers don’t wake up wanting your product; they wake up with problems, deadlines, and pressure. We unpack a practical B2B growth system that makes your brand the obvious choice long before a formal search begins—and keeps you indispensable long after the deal closes. We walk through a true moat you can build without patents or exclusivity: omnipresence built on adapted messaging. Our blog proves depth for procurement and marketing leaders, Instagram humanizes the team, LinkedIn drives thought leadership, Reddit fosters conversation, YouTube builds long-form trust, and email plus retargeting reinforces memory. Then we step offline. Account managers knock on doors with respect, ask for meetings, and show up at events—not to collect cards, but to embed in the business community and reduce buyer risk. When people say “I see you everywhere,” that’s strategy, not luck. Speed ties it all together. Fast replies, fast quotes, and fast delivery strip friction from the buying path, build reputation, and trigger referrals that drop acquisition costs. We also share how AI sharpens thinking—clarifying flows and tightening messages—so complex value becomes easy to understand for busy buying committees. The biggest shift, though, is our pivot from chasing new logos to obsessing over retention. We earn loyalty by owning mistakes, solving problems quickly, and delivering consistently, turning first wins into long-term partnerships that compound. If you’re ready to rethink lead generation, engineer fifteen meaningful touchpoints, and build a brand buyers trust before they compare vendors, hit play. Subscribe for more practical B2B marketing playbooks, share this with a teammate who owns pipeline, and leave a review to tell us which tactic you’ll implement first.  Follow Cubic Promote: 🌐 Website: https://www.cubicpromote.com.au 🔗 LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/company/cubic-promote 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cubicpromote/ 👍 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CubicPromote 🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cubic_promote 📌 Pinterest: https://au.pinterest.com/cubicpromote/ ⭐ Google Business: https://share.google/hskqvOCdVzgckNmYJ ✖️ X: https://x.com/cubicpromote

    8 min

  5. FEB 11

    What We stopped Doing Once We Got Big

    Growth isn’t always about adding more. We found our stride by stopping the right things—and the results reshaped our marketing, our team, and the way we serve customers. We open up about the specific tactics we cut, why they weren’t serving us at scale, and how focusing on fewer, better moves led to sustainable growth without compromising customer experience. We start with marketing myths that looked effective from the outside but underperformed in practice. Flash discounts trained delay and hurt margins, while purchased call and email lists drained time with poor data and low intent. We explain how shifting to consistent, year-round pricing and building demand through relevance paid off. You’ll hear why we opted out of big, crowded trade shows in favor of focused niches, reduced spend on LinkedIn paid when CPA spiked, and resisted bidding during seasonal search surges. We also share why we stopped routine company announcements unless they were truly useful to customers. From there, we get practical about people and process. Hiring for potential slowed delivery; hiring for immediate capability raised the bar on day one. By building roles around strengths—on-camera communicators in content, great talkers in service, process-minded folks in operations—and investing in targeted upskilling, we cut context switching and improved outcomes. We’re candid about the hard decisions too, including changing roles and, when needed, parting ways to support the next stage of scale. Finally, we talk trust and focus. Underpromise-overdeliver became a policy that protects our brand. We stopped saying yes to every printable item, referred non-core work to great partners, and doubled down on what we do best: promotional products and uniforms. On a personal note, we filtered advice to proven experts and looked beyond local competition to learn from leaders across the US, Europe, and Asia. That global lens sharpened our site, processes, and operations. If you’re feeling stretched as you grow, this conversation offers a clear playbook: remove the busywork, specialize with intent, and test your strategy against the best. Subscribe, share with a teammate who needs clarity, and leave a review with one thing you’re ready to stop doing next. Follow the host: Charles Liu: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charles-liu-042b9124/  Follow Cubic Promote: 🌐 Website: https://www.cubicpromote.com.au 🔗 LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/company/cubic-promote 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cubicpromote/ 👍 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CubicPromote 🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cubic_promote 📌 Pinterest: https://au.pinterest.com/cubicpromote/ ⭐ Google Business: https://share.google/hskqvOCdVzgckNmYJ ✖️ X: https://x.com/cubicpromote

    9 min

  6. JAN 15

    Lets talk about marketing - "Our Own"

    Most brands chase tactics; we chased presence and everything changed. Charles and Jasmine break down how #CubicPromote moved from scattered campaigns to an integrated, omnipresent marketing system that earns 15–24 meaningful touchpoints across a buyer’s journey. The result: steady trust, stronger recall, and content that compounds rather than evaporates. We share the real story behind our 2025 pivots: starting with rough Instagram posts, tightening our creative week by week, and watching engagement climb as quality and clarity improved. You’ll hear why consistency beats creativity at the start, how feedback loops sharpen messaging, and when creativity finally kicks in to elevate the work. We also map the channels that matter for B2B: Reddit for focused conversations and insight you can’t get anywhere else, Instagram and TikTok for durable reach and social proof, Pinterest for visual discovery and niche intent, and email as the direct line—when it’s hyper-targeted and genuinely useful. Email gets a frank diagnosis and a fix: segmentation, behavioral cues, and tailored value propositions that speak differently to a new coordinator than to a seasoned office manager. We dig into why single campaigns only succeed when they’re part of a larger effort, how to stitch offline and online moments into coherent journeys, and what it looks like to be truly omnipresent without sounding generic. Finally, we talk about AI the way practitioners use it: a communication amplifier that strengthens your own voice instead of replacing it. We’re setting a clear direction for 2026, quality content people want to consume, educational and entertaining formats that build authority, and a consistent cadence that earns attention over time. If you’re building a B2B marketing engine or rethinking your channel mix, this conversation will give you practical steps and a framework to make your brand hard to forget. Enjoy the insights, and if this resonated, subscribe, share with a teammate, and leave a quick review so others can find it. Connect with our host: Charles Liu: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charles-liu-042b9124/  Connect with our guests: Jasmine Liu: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasmine-liu-993bb63/  Follow Cubic Promote: 🌐 Website: https://www.cubicpromote.com.au 🔗 LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/company/cubic-promote 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cubicpromote/ 👍 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CubicPromote 🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cubic_promote 📌 Pinterest: https://au.pinterest.com/cubicpromote/ ⭐ Google Business: https://share.google/hskqvOCdVzgckNmYJ ✖️ X: https://x.com/cubicpromote

    10 min

  7. 12/15/2025

    How Many Times Does Someone Need to See a Brand Before They Buy?

    Ever wondered why it takes so many brand moments before a shopper finally buys? In b2c retail seven touchpoints used to be enough and now 20 to 40 is the norm. With Wendy and Catherine, we compare old assumptions to current behavior, tracing how a product moves from a flash on Instagram to a cart at Woolies, and how discounts, reviews, and retail trust work together to shrink buyer hesitation. We get practical fast: where new brands get noticed (social feeds, review-driven news articles, buses, shelves), why algorithms surface quick-bite claims that hook specific demographics, and how micro-influencers can shortcut the search phase when their lifestyle matches the audience. We also examine the 81% trust threshold, the 19% who still buy on impulse, and the underrated role of retailer credibility in early trials. Expect real stories about bone broth, daily vitamin shots, and the social proof that nudges a curious scroll into a first order. Design choices matter more than most teams admit. Color can boost recognition by up to 80%, but only if your palette and packaging stay consistent across SKUs and channels. We unpack the line between clever and confusing—like stylized logos that spark “What brand is that?” searches—and why legibility wins on small screens and crowded shelves. Finally, we lay out a multi-channel strategy that respects generational habits: Google for boomers, Instagram for Gen Z, plus promotional products and outdoor placements that add daily, durable impressions. The goal is orchestration, not noise: a sequence of clear, visual, trustworthy moments that compound into memory and conversion. If this breakdown gave you new ideas for your next campaign, follow the show. Charles Liu: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charles-liu-042b9124/ Connect with our guests:   •  Katherine Durham: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherine-durham-772876193/   •  Wendy Li:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendy-li-424821161/ Follow Cubic Promote: 🌐 Website: https://www.cubicpromote.com.au 🔗 LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/company/cubic-promote 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cubicpromote/ 👍 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CubicPromote 🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cubic_promote 📌 Pinterest: https://au.pinterest.com/cubicpromote/ ⭐ Google Business: https://share.google/hskqvOCdVzgckNmYJ  Follow Cubic Promote: 🌐 Website: https://www.cubicpromote.com.au 🔗 LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/company/cubic-promote 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cubicpromote/ 👍 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CubicPromote 🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cubic_promote 📌 Pinterest: https://au.pinterest.com/cubicpromote/ ⭐ Google Business: https://share.google/hskqvOCdVzgckNmYJ ✖️ X: https://x.com/cubicpromote

    15 min

  8. 12/02/2025

    Inside the Promo World What We Love, What We Remember, and the Clients Who Make It Easy

    Ever wondered what it actually takes to turn a scrappy merch idea into something people love to wear, keep, and show off? We open the studio doors and walk through the messy, creative, deeply satisfying process behind memorable promotional products and uniforms—complete with tight deadlines, picky color matches, and the joy of getting it right. We start with the spark: unexpected product requests that keep our creative muscles fresh. From a large international order of custom wombat plush where ear color mattered as much as delivery timing, to a complex conference collection for the housing sector in Canberra with strict specs and zero room for error, the team explains how ideas meet feasibility. You’ll hear how clear briefs, vector artwork, and early approvals protect quality, and why organized clients help us trade guesswork for speed. Then we shift to activations and premium keepsakes—Netflix-branded pieces that ride pop culture waves, and Luna Park’s Squid Game tokens designed to feel worth winning. Each example shows how storytelling, materials, and finishing choices turn branded items into lasting mementos. Behind the scenes, operations turns ambition into repeatable success. We dig into apparel print methods like screen printing and sublimation, how fabric choice affects color and durability, and the small checks—stitch density, legible micro text, pantone alignment—that prevent big headaches later. When timelines compress, we prefer tight option sets over sprawling catalogs, so we can hit budgets and ship dates without sacrificing brand impact. The throughline is simple: clear goals, honest communication, and a willingness to decide. That’s how great merch lands on time and gets used again and again. If you’re planning your next kit, activation, or uniform rollout, this one’s for you.  Follow our host: Charles Liu: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charles-liu-042b9124/ Connect with our guests: Katherine Durham: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherine-durham-772876193/Mark Tyssen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-tyssen-b141aa257/Swami Rossat: https://www.linkedin.com/in/swami-rossat/Anil Gupta: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anilgupta72/Wendy Li: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendy-li-424821161/Follow Cubic Promote: 🔗 LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/company/cubic-promote 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cubicpromote/ 👍 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CubicPromote 🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cubic_promote 📌 Pinterest: https://au.pinterest.com/cubicpromote/ ⭐ Google Business: https://share.google/hskqvOCdVzgckNmYJ ✖️ X: https://x.com/cubicpromote #CubicPromote #CustomMerchandise #PromotionalItems #Australia #B2B #Podcast #promoplaybookau   Follow Cubic Promote: 🌐 Website: https://www.cubicpromote.com.au 🔗 LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/company/cubic-promote 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cubicpromote/ 👍 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CubicPromote 🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cubic_promote 📌 Pinterest: https://au.pinterest.com/cubicpromote/ ⭐ Google Business: https://share.google/hskqvOCdVzgckNmYJ ✖️ X: https://x.com/cubicpromote

    8 min
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About

Welcome to The Promo Playbook, your backstage pass to the world of promotional marketing. Brought to you by Cubic Promote (https://www.cubicpromote.com.au/) Australia’s award-winning supplier of branded merchandise, this podcast is your go-to guide for making marketing and promo products work harder for your business. In each episode, we unpack real campaigns, talk to industry insiders, and share practical strategies to help you boost brand visibility, engage customers, and stand out. From trade shows to onboarding kits, we cover it all — with no fluff, just real insights that convert.

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